第八单元Traditional Christmas shopping customs

第八单元Traditional Christmas shopping customs

1 Once again, it’s that time of year, when all good

men and women settle their differences, get back in

touch with old friends and loved ones, and do their

utmost to enjoy some centuries-old traditions of

Christmas shopping.

2 At the start of the Christmas shopping season is Stir-up Sunday. This used to be a display of family unity when everyone went to the grocer’s shop to buy the flour, eggs and jars of dried fruit, and then stand around the kitchen table helping Mother or

Grandmother make the Christmas pudding. Each

member of the family would take it in turns to stir up, or mix, the ingredients and make a secret wish.

3 These days it has become the custom, just before we go to the market to order the turkey, for Mother to say, “With all your family coming for Christmas lunch, we’ll need a ten-kilo turkey,” and Father to reply “Ten kilos! You must be kidding! We’ll have to saw it in half to get it in the oven.”

4 Then number one Son says “Why don’t we have a goose this year?” and number two Son says, “What about roast duck?”and finally, number one Daughter “Stirs it Up” by saying in disgust, “But you know I don’t eat any meat whatsoever, all those poor turkeys, what about us

vegetarians?” It’s then t raditional for Father to make a wish, not a secret one but at the top of his voice, “I wish you’d eat proper food like the rest of us!”

5Then there’s the custom of Buying our Overseas

Relatives Presents on the Last Day of Posting. It begins

like thi s. Someone notices that there’s scarcely one

day left before parcel s to distant countries need to be

sent. Then Mother and Father play a game called It’s-

your-side-of-the-family-not-my-side, usually until they

won’t speak to each other ever again (so, about five

minutes). Then Father (for it’s always him) rushes into

town in a panic to buy something like socks or a tea

towel, nothing too heavy because of the postage costs,

and definitely not the same present as he bought last

year.

6Another tradition is Hunt the Parking Space. This

involves the annual triumph of hope against experience – taking the car into town to go Christmas shopping. Traditionally, Father will steer the car round and round the parking lots, watching for some Merry Christmas shopper stagger ing past with bags and presents, and then following them, like the Three Wise Men following the star 2,000 years ago, until they lead the family to their parking place.

7 At Christmas on street corners in British and American cities, yo u’ll find the brass band of the local Salvation Army playing Christmas music to the shoppers. Mothers and fathers, sons and daughters stop to listen to some of the season’s best-loved songs. Then one of the Salvation Army soldiers takes out a collecting box, asking those around for a donation to buy gifts for the less fortunate members of the community.

8 At this point, Father will collect his bags, and start to walk quickly away, signal ling to the children to follow. This is the old tradition of Father Not Having any pare Change, and is usually accompanied by the words, “Come along, children, God will provide!” as he “pretends” to vanish without paying.

9Perhaps the best-loved Christmas custom is Buying the Christmas Tree. This is traditionally left until the very last moment, long after all the good trees have disappeared. Mother reminds Father that the family needs a tree, Father replies that Christmas trees are a waste of money, and the children start to cry. So Father goes into town by bus, because the traffic is awful, and buys the last tree, traditionally the smallest tree possible, with the most peculiar shape, from a man on a street corner who demands

a traditional Excessive Payment“because it’s Christmas”.

10 Father then utters the word s, “The price of trees ... it’s an absolute scandal,” hands over large numbers of bank notes, and proceed s to bring the tree home somehow. When the bus driver sees Father with

the tree, trying to get on a bus which is packed stiff with shoppers, he greets him with the words, “You can’t get on here with that!”

11 The final tradition is Collecting the Turkey. After everyone has bought all their presents, wrapped them and stored them under the Christmas tree, it’s time to force their way back into town, thr ough crowded streets, carol singers and bell-ringers, wrapping paper salesmen, past Father Christmas going ho ho ho, office workers on the way home drunk, young women wearing Santa’s little helper hats, and venture into the market.

12As day turns slowly to night, the shop lights come on, the Christmas music plays at top volume, and the family makes its way to the butcher’s shop. Hanging high above the crowds are vast sides of red beef, deer without their heads, rabbits still in their fur socks, pink-looking pigs and of course, the turkeys. At this point, in a tradition which is an echo of Stir-up Sunday, number one Daughter has to say in disgust, “Oh, it’s so gross! I can’t believe you’d ever eat all that meat!”

Happy Christmas Shopping! ■

Further reading

Happy New Year!

1What do a piece of coal, fireworks and twelve grapes have in common? They all belong to New Year’s customs and rituals in different

countries around the world.

2 In Britain, on the stroke of midnight, people open their back door, to let out the old year, and let in the first tall, dark man carrying a loaf of bread, salt and a piece of coal. In China, as in many countries around the world, the New Year is celebrated with a firework display. In Spain, as they listen to the midnight clock ringing out the old year and ringing in the new, and after a long and agreeable dinner, the dessert includes twelve grapes corresponding to twelve strokes of the bell.

3 By the time the bell stops, everyone is meant to have swallowed their grapes. Of course, it’s almost impossible to do so in time. This usually means that with a mouth full of grapes, they begin to look at each other, they start laughing, and... well, you can guess what happens next.

4Many of these traditions are to do with bringing good luck for the coming New Year. The bread is a symbol of food, the salt represents money and the coal stands for warmth. Ghosts and evil spirits are thought to be frightened of loud noise, so we set off fireworks to scare them away. And the grapes are meant to represent fertile land, a fruitful harvest and enough food to eat.

5It’s thought that the New Year used to be marked by

some kind of natural transition, such as a change in the weather, the beginning or end of the growing season, or favourite food coming back into season. In the ancient Roman world the year was comprised of ten months, not twelve.

6The end of the old year was on 31st December, but

just to complicate matters, the start of the New Year was

on 1st March. But the ancient Romans abolished the old

calendar, and 1st January became the official opening of a

twelve-month year. There is no transition or change at this

point in the middle of winter, so the 1st January also

became a symbol of Man taking charge over Nature.

7Of course, many cultures celebrate New Year at other times of the year. In the Islamic world, the year is based on twelve lunar months, amounting to 354 days, so the Islamic New Year is 11 to 12 days earlier each year in relation to the Western calendar, and can occur on any date – in fact, the Islamic New Year was celebrated twice in 2008.

8The Jewish New Year occurs on the first two days of the seventh month (usually at some time in September). Even in many Western countries, the new school year commences in the autumn, and of course, all the latest television series are launched as soon as everyone returns from their summer holidays.

9 Despite the diverse ways in which people celebrate New Year, the customs all consist of certain common features. The first is the need to eliminate evil spirits. In Scotland the old year is considered to be evil and a straw figure of Death in disguise is taken in a parade around the town, then burnt, buried or drowned. In some villages, barrels of tar are set on fire and rolled through the streets to stop the citizens living at the mercy of the devil, and to chase him away.

10 Another feature is the symbolic need to make yourself pure. In

many cultures, homes are cleaned in order to exclude the bad luck of the old year, and people wear new clothes. In England, New Year’s Eve used to be a traditional time to clean the chimneys.

11The Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, is a holy time when people consider and show regret for what they might have done wrong in the past year, and promise to do better in the future. Elsewhere in the West, people still make New Year’s resolutions to abandon harmful behaviour and attitudes for which they feel guilty.

12 Food also has a symbolic role to play. Many cultures celebrate New Year with a banquet full of rich and costly food. But there are also humble items of food to show the person eating them is simple, careful with their money and honest. In Italy, a traditional New Year’s dish is lentil soup. In Sweden and Norway, people eat fish, carrots and cabbage to be sure of wealth in the year to come.

13 In the southern states of the US, a traditional New Year’s dish is composed of black-eyed peas, which represent copper coins, and green vegetables, which represent dollar bills. Each pea they eat equals one dollar’s worth of earning, and each portion of greens equals $1,000. In some states the tradition is to eat and digest365 black-eyed peas, to ensure good luck and wealth every day of the year.

14 Despite the many differences in the way different cultures celebrate the New Year, these durable customs and rituals all show our similar

optimistic wish to begin a new cycle in life, to be sure of good fortune, and to direct our own fate. So above all, New Year, wherever we spend it, and whatever we do, reminds us of the dominant characteristics we all share, and the common humanity to which we all belong. ■